Page:The illustrators of Montmartre.pdf/71



with it. Mrs. Lepingon visited the new dentist three times in the same day!"

A splendid set of drawings is included in the group Au café. We can see that they are so many resumés of the hurried sketches, for ever being made in the sketch-books which are Huard's never-failing companions. The handling, whether in pen and ink or in chalk, is always frank and bold, and occasionally is like that of Raffaëlli. Among the Raisonneurs et Sentimentaux are two old gossips seated on their favourite bench on the me of the town; it is evident that neither of them, even in his palmiest days, could have set the local brook on fire, Yet one of them explains that "there have only been two men who have understood the proper course for France to pursue — M. Thiers and J. M. Thiers is dead, and they will not listen to me!" A joyful break in the monotony of life in the provincial town is most admirably rendered in Market day at Pavigny-le-Gras, Everyone and everything is fat, and hot, and smiling. Joy and plenty are the key notes of the harmony; éxuberant good nature exudes from every pore. Even the houses around the Place de la Cathédrale seem to beam and bulge in purring contentment.

A review of Huard's work leads one to regret that he does not render his survey of provincial types more complete, by occasionally including studies of that manly and womanly beauty which